Korean speaker’s perception of (im)politeness across speech acts of agreement, compliment, disagreement and criticism

The present research hypothesises that speech acts can serve as afundamental device of (im)politeness, potentially outweighing the significantcontribution of honorifics, including speech levels. Specifically, it argues that agreeingwith interlocutors and paying them compliments are closely related to the realisationand perception of politeness in Korean speech. Although the literature notes the deepengagement of speech acts in Korean (im)politeness, scholars have primarily focusedon ‘polite refusal’ or ‘polite request’ as speech acts that explicitly threaten the hearer’s‘face’ (Brown and Levinson 1978, 1987). However, other speech acts, such as agreement,disagreement, complimenting and criticism, can also significantly affect the perceptionof (im)politeness across the spectrum of linguistic behaviours. Through a survey askingnative Korean speakers to assess the degree of (im)politeness perceived from differentutterances, the current study explores how several factors, including addressee, modality,speech level and speech acts, are complicatedly but distinctly involved in Koreanspeakers’ perceptions of (im)politeness. While the results confirm the impact ofhonorifics and ‘negative face’ on the speakers’ assessment of (im)politeness, they alsoindicate that positive politeness together with negative politeness needs to be moreactively included in the discussion regarding how (im)politeness is perceived in actualspeech practices. This comprehensive approach aims to capture the full spectrum oflinguistic behaviours observed in actual speech practices, contributing to a more nuancedunderstanding of (im)politeness in Korean speech.